Will an agency let me know if somebody else has made an offer

Abu94

I have found a house for sale and made an offer but there were many other people looking at the same property so I don't know if anyone else has increased my offer. Let's say somebody else made an offer above asking price, does that mean that the house is sold immediately and that I will not get a chance to increase my offer?

marco_polo

Abu94 wrote: »

I have found a house for sale and made an offer but there were many other people looking at the same property so I don't know if anyone else has increased my offer. Let's say somebody else made an offer above asking price, does that mean that the house is sold immediately and that I will not get a chance to increase my offer?

Usually they'll let you know very quickly. And no chance it would be closed on first offer over asking so if you haven't heard anything there likely hasn't been a higher bid yet.

Gumbo

Yes. They should let you know if you are the high bidder and if you have been outbid, give you the chance to up your bid if you wish.

Peregrinus

It's very much in their interests to give you an opportunity to make a higher offer so, usually, yes, you'll hear from them. But you have no right to hear from them. If the vendor gets a generous offer and for whatever reason decides to accept it immediately and not seek still more generous offers, he can do that.

Wabbit Ears

may be like the current practice in interviews where they often no longer tell you you were unsuccessfull. If you dont get a call assume you didn't get it aka, dont call us, we'll call you!

or just call and ask..

fg1406

I withdrew my offer on a house because I just found it frustrating to constantly have to call for an update on bidders on a property. The vendor dragged their heels before declining our offer despite there being no further bids after we had upped ours. Now bidding on a house where the EA is keeping in touch with us every few days. If there's No higher bids than ours by the end of the week he's putting to to vendor to sell. Fingers crossed!

You'll find that some EAs are more engaging than others.

qrx

You'll get to know the different agencies and their tactics. There's a particular well known agency I find very difficult to deal with. I'm so disappointed when a property comes up and I see their logo. Actually decided to not even bother viewing a property by them recently. I just know the asking price is deliberately set low and their arrogance and patronising attitude to buyers just puts me right off. I had an EA actually snigger when she rang me to tell me there was a higher bid.

davo10

qrx, you are going to find the process of buying a home un-necessarily difficult and emotionally challenging unless you learn to be less emotional about it.

EAs work for the seller, not the buyer, if they worked for both there would be a conflict of interest as a seller wants a high price, the buyer a low one.

Advertising a property at lower than expected price is a tried and trusted way of generating interest in a property. Ultimately the EA nor the seller knows what a property will sell for, the market will dictate that. But what the vendor wants is as many bidders as possible in the process.

If you make an offer which is no where near asking, in a rising market, then there will be a degree of derision, it might be unprofessional but it may be understandable.

You should not focus on the EA nor their personality, just focus on two factors, what you can afford to spend, and what you want to spend it on. Prices/value of a property are movable depending on the number of people who want to buy it, but your budget is not movable.

And remember, when you decide to sell your house, the shoe will be on the other foot, you won't care how the EA achieves the maximum price for you.

Effects

There's a pretty good chance they'll call and tell you someone else has made a higher offer even when that higher offer doesn't exist.

qrx

davo10 wrote: »

qrx, you are going to find the process of buying a home un-necessarily difficult and emotionally challenging unless you learn to be less emotional about it.

EAs work for the seller, not the buyer, if they worked for both there would be a conflict of interest as a seller wants a high price, the buyer a low one.

Advertising a property at lower than expected price is a tried and trusted way of generating interest in a property. Ultimately the EA nor the seller knows what a property will sell for, the market will dictate that. But what the vendor wants is as many bidders as possible in the process.

If you make an offer which is no where near asking, in a rising market, then there will be a degree of derision, it might be unprofessional but it may be understandable.

You should not focus on the EA nor their personality, just focus on two factors, what you can afford to spend, and what you want to spend it on. Prices/value of a property are movable depending on the number of people who want to buy it, but your budget is not movable.

And remember, when you decide to sell your house, the shoe will be on the other foot, you won't care how the EA achieves the maximum price for you.

Thanks for the advice. But as you rightly point out, the EA acts for the vendor and not me. There are two parties in this transaction, me and the vendor\EA. That in no way suggests I need to suck it up the EA. I will quite happily walk away with no regrets if an EA shows me a lack of respect in what is a transaction for hundreds of thousands of Euro.

Askthe EA

Effects wrote: »

There's a pretty good chance they'll call and tell you someone else has made a higher offer even when that higher offer doesn't exist.

This chestnut again.....

Effects

Askthe EA wrote: »

This chestnut again.....

You're probably an estate agent yourself and can't admit that it happens. I've personally experienced it twice with the mystery bidder strangely backing out after I refused to increase from their bid.

Askthe EA

Effects wrote: »

You're probably an estate agent yourself and can't admit that it happens. I've personally experienced it twice with the mystery bidder strangely backing out after I refused to increase from their bid.

I am, the clue is in the name! ;-)

I dont disagree that it might happen, but it doesnt happen as often as people seem to think. Ive explained the reasons why many times before but basically, its not worth the risk to ones license and therefore ones career for what is usually a pittance after tax.

qrx

Effects wrote: »

You're probably an estate agent yourself and can't admit that it happens. I've personally experienced it twice with the mystery bidder strangely backing out after I refused to increase from their bid.

More than likely you were bidding against an uncommitted buyer. Most likely not even in a position to bid in the first place.

Askthe EA

qrx wrote: »

More than likely you were bidding against an uncommitted buyer. Most likely not even in a position to bid in the first place.

Indeed, people bid on multiples of properties. Some go sale agreed on more than one and await engineers reports before proceeding.